Capozzi ('56) was a left-handed pitcher under longtime head coach Jake Kline ('21).

Dr. Angelo Capozzi To Receive 2014 Moose Krause Distinguished Service Award

Feb. 10, 2014

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame Monogram Club is pleased to announce that the 2014 Edward “Moose” Krause Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Rotaplast co-founder and medical director Dr. Angelo Capozzi (’56, baseball).

Dr. Capozzi will receive the organization’s highest honor at An Evening With the Monogram Club, on Saturday, April 12 in Sports Heritage Hall, following the 85th edition of the Blue Gold Game.

“Dr. Capozzi has taken that concept of service to mankind that we all learned here at Notre Dame and put it into action,” Monogram Club past president (2009-11) and Awards Committee chair Joe Restic (’79, football) said. “He has been directly involved with over 50 medical missions all over the world to treat children born with a cleft lip or palate deformity. It is this extraordinary commitment and involvement with youth that makes him the ideal recipient for this year’s Moose Krause Award.”

After graduating from Notre Dame with honors in 1956, Capozzi attended the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago. He completed general surgery training at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill., and plastic surgery training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, before joining the Air Force. Stationed at the Travis Air Force base in Fairfield, Calif., Capozzi served as Chief Plastic Surgeon until 1968, when he began private practice in San Francisco.

In 1976, Capozzi made his first international mission, joining Interplast (now called ReSurge) on a trip to Mexicali, Mexico, to assist children with cleft lip and palate. Nearly 40 years and over 60 mission trips later, he is still working to improve the lives of children around the world.

Today, Capozzi serves as medical director and co-founder of Rotaplast, an organization established with Rotary International in 1993. More than 20 years since its inaugural trip to Chile, Rotaplast has operated on well over 19,000 children in 24 countries. The organization hopes to eliminate untreated cleft lips and palates in children worldwide by 2025.

The Moose Krause Award will not be the first significant University honor for Dr. Capozzi. In 2001, he received the Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award from the Notre Dame Alumni Association, conferred to an alumnus/alumna who has exhibited outstanding service to humankind. He was the 1997 recipient of the Bay Area Alumni Association Exemplar Award, and in 1985, recognized as the Bay Area Alumni Association Man of the Year.

While at Notre Dame, Capozzi was a left-handed pitcher under longtime Irish coaching great Jake Kline (’21). He is the third Moose Krause recipient in the past four years to have earned a Monogram as a baseball student-athlete.

Capozzi and his wife, Louise, have been married for over 53 years, and have three children – Angelo ’83, Leonard and Jeanne.

****

The Moose Krause Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor given by the Notre Dame Monogram Club. It is bestowed upon an active Club member who has achieved notoriety in the following areas:

  • Exemplary performance in local, state or national government
  • Outstanding dedication to the spirit and ideals of Notre Dame
  • Demonstrated responsibility to and concern for their respective communities
  • Extraordinary commitment and involvement with youth

The Monogram Club’s officers and board of directors select the annual recipient.

The award is named in honor of Notre Dame athletics legend Edward “Moose” Krause (1913-92), a three-sport monogram winner in the early 1930s who earned All-America honors in football and basketball while also competing in track and field. He later served as an assistant football coach and assistant and head basketball coach at Notre Dame before becoming one of the nation’s most respected athletic directors, serving in that role at his alma mater from 1949-82.

Monogram Club Moose Krause Distinguished Service Award Recipients

1979 – Ray Meyer ’38 (basketball)
1980 – Clarence “Jake” Kline ’21 (baseball)
1981 – Edward “Moose” Krause ’34 (football, basketball)
1982 – Harvey Foster ’39 (football)
1983 – Jim Mello ’48 (football)
1984 – Ziggy Czarobski ’48 (football)
1985 – Rev. John Smyth ’57 (basketball)
1986 – Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. ’39 (honorary member)
1986 – Rev. Edmund P. “Ned” Joyce, C.S.C. ’37 (honorary member)
1987 – Dan Harshman ’68 (football)
1988 – John Jordan ’69 (honorary member)
1989 – Leo Barnhorst ’49 (basketball)
1989 – Bill Hassett ’47 (basketball, baseball)
1990 – Dave Duerson ’83 (football)
1991 – Zeke O’Connor ’49 (football)
1992 – Joseph Signaigo ’48 (football)
1993 – Fritz Wilson ’28 (baseball)
1994 – Dr. Dennis Nigro ’69 (tennis)
1995 – Dick Rosenthal ’54 (basketball, baseball)
1996 – Chris Zorich ’91 (football)
1997 – George Kelly ’53 (honorary member)
1998 – Ara Parseghian (honorary member)
1999 – John Carney ’87 (football)
2000 – Mike Wadsworth ’66 (football)
2000 – Rev. William Beauchamp, C.S.C. ’75 (honorary member)
2001 – Rev. Jim Riehle, C.S.C. ’49 (honorary member)
2002 – Bill Hurd ’69 (track and field)
2003 – Pete Demmerle ’75 (football)
2004 – Jim Morse ’57 (football)
2005 – Rev. Edward A. “Monk” Malloy, C.S.C ’63, ’67 & ’69 (basketball)
2006 – Carol Lally Shields ’79 (basketball)
2007 – Jerome Bettis (football)
2008 – Lou Holtz (honorary member)
2009 – Mike DeCicco ’49 (fencing)
2010 – Dennis Stark ’47 (honorary member)
2011 – Chuck Lennon ’61, ’62 (baseball)
2012 – Joe Kernan ’68 (baseball)
2013 – Marty Allen ’58 (student manager)
2014 – Dr. Angelo Capozzi ’56 (baseball)